Welcome to Season 4, Episode 27 of What Matters Most! This episode focuses on a lecture given by Dr. Pavlo Smytsnyuk, "Securitizing Religion Amid the Russo-Ukrainian War: Nationalism, Identity, and Religious Freedom," given for the Centre for Christian Engagement at St. Mark's College on March 17, 2026. This lecture is a part of our examination of Christian nationalism, a project we are now calling Cross Purposes: Christianity and Nationalism. At the Centre for Christian Engagement, we are exploring a wide variety of ways in which Christianity and nationalism interact with one another, and in this lecture Dr. Smytsnyuk examined questions of nationalism, identity, and religious freedom. The language of Christian nationalism is complex and means different things in different contexts. Russia's war on Ukraine, supported openly by the Russian Orthodox Church, has created many complexities for the varieties of Christianity in Russia and Ukraine.

Pavlo Smytsnyuk was born in Ukraine and studied philosophy and theology in Rome, Athens, and St. Petersburg, and holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford. He specializes in political theology, the study of religious nationalism, and Eastern Christianity.He is currently a visiting scholar at New York University’s Jordan Center. Before moving to New York, he held research and teaching positions at George Washington University in D.C., Princeton University, and Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Smytsnyuk is co-editor of Marian Reflections on War and Peace: Trauma, Mourning, and Justice in Ukraine and Beyond (Routledge, 2025).

A few thanks are in order. First of all, I am grateful to Martin Strong, who guides me in the podcasting world and joins me for the Pop Culture Matters regularly. Second, the episodes are edited, engineered, and produced by Kevin Eng who is the first listener to all the episodes and my consultant for each episode, especially with the snippets that begin each episode. Thank you, Kevin, for all of your expertise and support and especially for saving this episode when I could not convert it to a listenable or viewable file. Finally, to the Fang Fang Chandra, the CCE assistant, who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly.

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas.

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Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Follow us at our Instagram page, @stmarkscce and drop us a line as to what you want to see or hear. We’ll post there with a question as to what you are most interested in. Or email us with your suggestions to jmartens@stmarkscollege.ca or cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca.

John W. Martens